


Wolf

by Spurlunk



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Gen, Menstruation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2687771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spurlunk/pseuds/Spurlunk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Glimpses into Mako Mori's life in an alternate universe where all jaeger pilots are werewolves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolf

One afternoon, the summer Mako Mori was twelve years old, her father came into the command center and told her he needed to talk to her. The problem was, Stacker Pentecost was never able to just go into a room and come out, especially not when that room was the command center. Everyone had something to say to him, and he had things to say to them. Mako was perfectly content sitting near Tendo Choi, doing her physics homework and handing it over to him to check whenever she had a problem. Finally Stacker made it over, ripping off the sign taped to Tendo's desk that said TENDO ZONE in fancy lettering and throwing it in the trash.

"Mako, I need to talk to you. Do you mind stepping out with me for a moment?" he asked. She nodded, and put her homework down, following him out the door. They walked to one of the walkways overlooking the hangar where the jaegers were being worked on, and even though it was loud, they were high up enough that they could hear each other without much trouble. Stacker sat down, his legs dangling off the edge, and Mako sat down next to him, surprised. He would always scold her when he caught her sitting here, because he said she was small enough that she could slip under the railing and fall to her death. Yet for some reason today he was letting her sit like this. Whatever he had to tell her must be serious. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"So - now that you're getting older - "

"If this is about where babies come from I already know, don't worry."

Stacker coughed, and swallowed a couple of times.

"Well, I'm glad we don't have to have that conversation, but I was actually going to tell you about something else. I'm not sure if you're aware, but most every pilot in this program is a - well, a - "

"A werewolf? I know about that already too. Pilots talk a lot, they are very loud. They have...large heads."

"I know what you mean," Stacker said with a wry smile.

"Also, Chuck keeps telling me that he is a werewolf and I'm not, so I'll never be a pilot."

"Chuck is - Mako, Chuck is a teenage boy. What did I tell you about teenage boys?"

"That they are all jackasses?"

"Yes. They're all jackasses."

"How do you know?"

"I know because I was one. Now go back and finish your physics work," Stacker said, and now it was Mako's turn to smile. He stood up, and Mako joined him, taking his hand to make sure she didn't slip and fall.

"If you ever have a question, Mako, I want you to come to me. I don't care if it's about werewolves, or your schoolwork, or even...woman problems. Alright?"

Mako nodded solemnly, and then ran off back to the command center. Stacker went back to work, supremely grateful that had gone much easier than he thought it would.

Mako wanted more than anything in the world to be a jaeger pilot. She knew that she wasn't a werewolf like all of the others were, so she had no hope of being considered. Their reflexes were better, even in their human form, and no matter how hard Mako tried, she would never be able to live up to that. She didn't care. She worked as hard as she could, she wanted to do everything that they could do, and better, so that she could persuade her father to let her be a pilot too.

When Mako was fourteen, she got her period. She wasn't sure what was going on when she woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and found brownish stains on her underwear. Menstruation was supposed to be about bleeding, and blood was red. This made no sense. She put some toilet paper in her underwear and walked out to knock on her father's door. He opened it, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Mako hadn't ever seen his scars before. She found herself staring before he said something to snap her out of it.

"Yes? Mako, what's wrong?"

"I think I - I need sanitary napkins. Pads. Do you know where I can get some?"

Stacker seemed like he was completely at a loss for words and Mako looked down at her feet, blushing hard. She had managed to be so matter of fact about this up till this point, but truth be told, she was terrified. Brown liquid was not supposed to be coming out of her. This is not what she was told would happen.

"Uh...hold on," he said, and went back into his room. He came out a few moments later, fully dressed, albeit sloppily, and told her to go back to her room. About twenty minutes later he came back with a blue package of pads.

"You know how to use these? There are instructions, I - "

"I know how to use them. Thank you, good night, I'm fine," Mako said, her voice squeaking at the last few words, and went into her room, slamming the door shut.

The next day she pretended like nothing happened, and she was grateful when her father did the same. The day was uneventful, more or less. She had pretty bad cramps, but nobody seemed to mind when she chose to spend her day in bed instead of at her usual hang-out spots. Even Chuck didn't seek her out to annoy her as he usually did. She was pretty sure even he knew that the only reason she put up with him was because she loved his dog.

About a week and a half later, Mako woke up from deep sleep in the middle of the night only to find that she had become a wolf.

Mako couldn't see herself, there was no mirror in her room, so she didn't know what she looked like, but she could tell that she wasn't human anymore. Everything was larger, so she knew she was closer to the ground. She could see her legs and she knew they were not human legs anymore. She was covered in fur. Her senses were all strange, she smelled things different, heard things different, and saw things different. Mako opened her mouth and a whine came out.

Mako made it out of her room by running at the door until she'd jumped high enough to knock open the latch. She ran into the hallway, skidding on the metal, her nails skittering on the floor. She felt like she was sensing everything too much, she didn't know where to go or what to do, and then she smelled something familiar, a scent that said 'friend'. She scratched at the door frantically and then the Wei Tang brothers opened the door. Well, not all of them. Jin opened the door, and he was confused for a moment before he looked down and saw the young wolf at his feet.

"Mako? Mako, is that you? Hu, Cheung, it's Mako!" he said, his face lit up in complete delight. He knelt down and rubbed her head between the ears. The other two brothers got out of bed and all three of them happily crowded around her, exclaiming about how now she could be a jaeger pilot, Stacker Pentecost couldn't possibly say no, and they had to go wake him up and tell him right away! So Mako followed the Wei Tang triplets down the hall to his room, and woke him up.

"This better be good," he said, looking at the brothers, his eyes rimmed in red from lack of sleep. Mako walked forward and sat down gracefully, looking up at him.

"Mako?" he said, and she concentrated as hard as she could, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she was back in her human form, wearing the same clothes she'd fallen asleep in.

"Now can I be a jaeger pilot?" she asked.

"Can she? She can, right?" Hu said, almost as excited as she would be if she wasn't still a little terrified.

"Keep working hard. We'll see. Now all four of you, go back to bed."

"Yes sir," the brothers said in unison.

"Good night, Mako."

"Good night."

The first time Mako experienced the drift, it was overwhelming. She had been thinking of this moment for what felt like her whole life, and now, to do it with Raleigh - she hoped that her face didn't betray her anxiety and excitement.

It was strange and overwhelming. She saw scenes from Raleigh's childhood, as if they were memories of her own life she had merely forgotten. She saw Raleigh and Yancy, two brothers, two wolves, playing and fighting together. Then it was her memories she was caught in. The days she spent studying, working as hard as she could to be the best, for herself and for her family. Learning physics with Tendo in the Command Center, and chemistry and biology with Newton and Geizler in the lab. Running with the Wei Tang brothers in the exercise room, but as wolves instead of people. She went farther back. Her parents. The day they died. The day she ran, alone, for her life, as the city around her was destroyed. Her shoe. That one red shoe.

Then Raleigh was there, and Stacker Pentecost, and when Mako came out of it, she was lying on the ground, breathing hard.

"It's okay, you're fine - " he was saying, but the jaeger was pointing right at the command center, and Mako felt like she might throw up.

It took another try, but eventually Mako and Raleigh finally fought together, piloted Gypsy Danger and did what they had been trained to do. It felt so natural when they worked together, like they had been doing this their whole life. It felt as natural as running did, when Mako was a wolf. She knew Raleigh felt the same way.

When they fought the last battle, the one that meant the end of all other battles, Mako felt like her heart stopped. It didn't, she knew it didn't, because she swam over to Raleigh, got him out, and hugged him so tight, so so tight. The relief that went through her when she realized he was alive, and laughing, and that she was squeezing him too hard was almost a tangible thing, she thought maybe she could actually see it in the air in front of her. Then the planes came. They were taken away, back to land. They weren't separated, which was good because Mako didn't think she could handle that right now. They didn't hold hands or do anything that could be misconstrued, but just being in close proximity to each other was enough.

It was so hectic, there wasn't even a moment to breathe, she couldn't process, she was overwhelmed. There was a lot of attention, press conferences, television appearances, they were flown from city to city and sometimes Mako had trouble of keeping track of where they were on any given day. She was good at putting on her stoic face, the one she used when she didn't know what else to do, and she said all the right things to all the right people at all the right times.

Mako just wanted to be away, she was restless and she couldn't bear it, she needed a moment to herself but it wasn't possible, it was never possible. She would look instinctively for Stacker Pentecost's calming presence and then it was like a punch to her stomach when she remembered he was no longer there and would never be again.

They always kept Mako and Raleigh in separate rooms, but they were adjoining. They were the only jaeger pilots who hadn't been romantically involved or related to each other by blood. No one really knew how to deal with them. That night, Mako was restless. She was so restless she didn't think she could take it for another moment, and she could swear she felt Raleigh's restlessness too, right through the wall, seeping into her pores.

She was on her feet and walking towards the door that connected their rooms when he opened it first, because of course he did, of course he knew what she wanted at the same moment she did, sometimes it felt like they were always in the drift, they never left.

"Do you want - " he began.

"One moment," she said, and they put on their shoes and jackets, taking the back stairs out of the hotel. As soon as they were outside, Mako took a deep deep breath of the cool night air, and concentrated, shutting her eyes. When she opened them, she was a wolf, and there was Raleigh staring back at her, a big wolf himself, with friendly familiar eyes.

They ran and ran and ran until they were clear out of the city and then they collapsed in a heap, panting hard and happier than they had ever been, in a patch of grass by the side of the highway. Mako could tell Raleigh was grinning, his tongue lolling out to the side like he was a golden retriever instead of a big wolf, and it was suddenly too much to handle. Now that she had a moment to clear her head, a moment to think, the whole gaping future set out before her was terrifying. She had avenged her parents death, she had done what she had spent her whole life training for. Now what? She turned human again, almost without thinking, like it was a reflex more than anything else, and sat up, wrapping her arms around her legs and bringing her knees up to her chest. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to think, she thought maybe she was about to have a panic attack, and then Raleigh was there, breathing loudly and smelling of wolf. He licked her face with his wet, rough tongue, and she pushed him away, laughing and wiping her face. She lay back down, still human, and stared up at the sky. He lay next to her, in wolf form, curled up close to keep her warm. The two of them looked at the stars, their breathing evenly matched, drawing strength from each other.


End file.
